A Unexpected Intro to Italy

For those of you who are of Italian descent, you are now home!'

That was our tour guide Steve over the microphone in the bus on our way from Switzerland into Italy. For those on the bus who'd never been to Italy before, they were about to find out what he meant by that.  I, on the other hand, completely understood.  I'd been to Italy twice before, and I can say from firsthand experience that if you are of Italian descent, you do feel like you belong there.  This was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the least, because I'd been there before, but now that we had crossed the border into my home country, I was officially excited!

The bus ride from Alnachstadt to Venice, where we were headed next, was a long one.  This was the one day on the original itinerary that had nothing on it except bus to Venice.  As seems to happen on these yearly trips, Steve and Ivan improvise along the way when they feel they have an opportunity, and after some discussion between them, they decided that we needed to break up the long trip by making a stop in Verona, the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which was on the way to Venice.  Great idea!

Now this was cool, an unplanned stop to a place I'd never been before.  From what I've heard and experienced of Italy, I know there are literally hundreds of places to explore, both famous and not so famous, and they're all, well wonderfully adventurous.  Verona was no different.  

Immediately upon entering the small city, we came across this fortress wall, I am sure very historic, and soon after disembarking off the bus we came upon a Roman coliseum, which was at the time under construction.  You could tell from billboards outside the venue that it is still used today for outdoor concerts.  How cool would that be to experience?

The kids were given some free time to explore and we seven hungry adults went out in search of food.  Before we even hit a restaurant, I knew I was going to have some pizza.  I love Italian pizza.  It's so different from the usual slices you get here in the states, ultra thin and ultra delicioso!  

The next couple of hours were an unexpected, pleasant adventure spent meandering through cobblestone streets, doing a little shopping, and of course some gelato thrown in for good measure! Of course, no day trip to Verona would be complete without a visit to the world-famous La Casa di Giulietta, Juliet's house.  Really, it wasn't all that much, but the little courtyard in front of the famous balcony was teeming with tourists ogling the terrace and snapping away with their cameras.  

All in all, Verona was a great and pleasantly surprising way to start off the Italian leg of our trip. Though our next three destinations were all places I'd been to before, there were still some nice surprises and new adventures in store.  Stay tuned...

In the meantime, check out my other tales from our 2015 trip to Europe...

Amster...dam, Part I

Gouda Cheese and Clogs

Amster...dam: The End

Joanne's Broken Wheel

Hello Paris: An Afternoon at the Sacré Coeur

Making A Memory at the Eiffel Tower

When You've Seen One Gold Ceiling, You've Seen Them All

I'd Take Paris...Again!

Macaroons, Pranks and Belly Laughs in Paris

An Introduction to Switzerland...Beautiful Zurich

        

A Retro Chalet Among the Alps, Complete with a Side Order of Bosnia-Herzegovina

Luzern and a Mountain Called Pilatus

The Best Day

   

Basking in the Afterglow of a European Adventure

Well, it's been five days already and I can't believe that just now I am sitting down to write.  A week ago right now, I was sleeping in my hotel room in Rome, Italy.  Thinking back on it, it all seems still a dream...

It all started for me back in December.  It was the second to last day before Christmas break and Ivan, the social studies teacher who runs the school's annual sophomore Europe trip, asked me if I wanted to join in.  I'd always imagined what it would be like to be asked, and I wasn't ever sure if I'd say yes if I was, but I did, and I did so excitedly.  Hey, you've got to take opportunities in life and this was one I'd be an idiot to pass up.

The three months in between being asked and actually going went by oh so quickly, and before you knew it, April 2nd came and I was on a flight to Amsterdam.  This trip wasn't one like I'm used to, though. It was a working trip as I was one of five chaperones, plus Ivan, to accompany 41 tenth grade students to 8 cities in 4 countries in Europe.  Being the school's ESL teacher, none of my own students were going, and so I was the only chaperone who didn't know any of the kids beforehand, but I was told they were a great group of kids, which they were.  

All in all, the trip was awesome!  I got to spend 12 days with six great people and 41 good kids and we experienced a lifetime's worth of adventure.  We started off in Amsterdam, then moved on to Paris, Zurich, and Lucerne, and the Italian cities of Verona, Venice, Florence and Rome.  We saw windmills and clogs, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Vatican and Switzerland from over 4K feet. We ate macaroons and pizza and lots of cheese, checked out Lamborghini's and Ferrari's, two Coliseums, the canals of Venice and experienced the Renaissance splendor of my favorite European city, Firenze.  

So stay tuned as I share some of what I experienced on this wonderful 12-day dream trip.  The experience was inspiring, to say the least, and it's left me dreaming of future adventures...

  

Song of the Day - Sky Fits Heaven - Madonna

Now that I'm done blubbering about my seven-year unniversary, I want to share a song from a happy time with Joe.  This song came to life on a veranda on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, somewhere in the year 2000.  It lies at the very core of this blog and my life's beliefs...  

Traveling down this road

Watching the signs as I go

I think I'll follow the sun

Isn't everyone just

Traveling down their own road

Watching the signs as they go

I think I'll follow my heart

It's a very good place to start